Stoner to Undergo Surgery, Miss Brno

During qualifying last Saturday for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, the reigning MotoGP Champion Casey Stoner suffered a massive high side, the Australian fracturing and spraining his right ankle.

His team and medical officials advised him not to race. But the Repsol Honda rider didn’t want to lose any valuable points, and competed at Sunday’s Indy MotoGP.

Stoner was going to attempt racing the Czech Republic Grand Prix at Brno, but on Thursday at the press conference he reported he’s heading back to Australia for surgery, and will miss Sunday’s GP. This decision arrived after Stoner’s doctors advised him to have surgery on his damaged ankle to avoid any permanent injury.

Stoner, who will retire at the conclusion of the 2012 MotoGP Championship, confirmed in a press conference this afternoon that he currently has no idea what the recovery time may be once he has had the surgery early next week. He said:

Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC213V MotoGP) says: “They (doctors) had to send the disc [with the scans], and they viewed them all day today and decided the worst thing to do would be to keep going in it, to keep riding with it. And the best thing to do would be to get back and have surgery as soon as possible, so that gives us the quickest recovery rate before the end of the season, and hopefully we can get back.

“It was always feeling like it was going to be this decision anyway. I was recommended by everyone not to race on Sunday in Indianapolis, so I didn’t expect the situation to be better here. It’s definitely disappointing; it’s not what we wanted, especially in my last season. We’re coming into a few left hand circuits, and circuits that I prefer to be honest.

“In the later part of the season you never know what could have happened, but we’ll keep pushing. I don’t regret it [racing at Indianapolis]. I’ve never really followed people’s orders with things like that in the past. But now, if another accident was to happen it would be huge damage. It’s just frustrating to thing what we could have done without this injury.”

Stoner, who will have surgery sometime next week, hopes to be recovered in time to race in Phillip Island in late October.

Casey Stoner says: “I believe I can be back before Phillip Island. It really does depend on the surgery, how they [the doctors] see it. Hopefully they can get me back on track as soon as possible and at least I’ll get a few races before the end of the season. Again, it might not depend on what the doctors say.”

Stoner says the injury has now put him out of championship contention.

Casey Stoner says: “I’ve lost championships before, so we know what it’s like. We’re pretty much out of it, even going into this weekend. But now that we’re not competing it’s done and dusted. Very frustrating, but life goes on.”